


Clean Up on Aisle 5

by lumassen



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Human AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumassen/pseuds/lumassen
Summary: Stefan Oxenstierna, newest recruit at H-Mart Superstore has a bitter pill to swallow - and that's being paid minimum wage to serve the general public. Store Manager Timo, Assistant Manager Matthias and associates Lukas and Emil start out as nothing but colleagues, but soon Stefan starts to realise that the place where he spends 37.5 hours of his week soon becomes more than just a workplace.
Relationships: Denmark & Finland (Hetalia), Denmark & Norway (Hetalia), Denmark/Norway (Hetalia), Finland & Sweden (Hetalia), Finland/Sweden (Hetalia)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 17





	Clean Up on Aisle 5

**Day One - New Recruit**

Stefan took a moment to gather his thoughts as he pulled into the carpark and killed the engine. Now that the rumble of the car had stopped and the radio had died with it, he sat in silence as he watched a mother dragging four bratty children behind her - a fifth one sitting _in_ the cart that she was pushing - out of the store and over to her minivan. He watched her until she’d bundled them all into the van, and then didn’t even flinch when the cart she’d abandoned rolled away and crashed into the car a couple of spots away from him. Instead, he just sighed heavily and got out of his own car. 

The superstore, sadly, the countries’ largest and best example of modern capitalism, loomed over him, a building way bigger than any store ought to be, clad with corrugated tin and a huge sign that stayed lit 24/7.

H-Mart Superstore.

Striding over to the runaway cart, Stefan pulled it away from the car it had collided with and winced at the dent it had left in the middle of the rear door. His satchel containing his ID and personal documents that he’d had to bring ready for his induction banged against Stefan’s hip as he returned the cart, and then when he made way to the entrance and was hit by a blast of air-conditioning as he stepped through the doors it finally sank in that this would be his new home for 37.5 hours a week.

The store was vast, almost overwhelmingly so, with a cafeteria, garden centre, home & décor section as well as groceries, a pharmacy, electronic goods, games & toys and frozen produce. Both customers and staff in the signature blue and yellow uniforms milled around, and Stefan cleared his throat as he stopped by the register closest to him.

The employee manning it was currently nothing but a mass of curly blonde hair slumped over on their stool onto the conveyor belt, face buried within their arms. They didn’t look up when Stefan coughed, and so he tried again, a little louder this time.

“Sorry, but can’t you see that this register is closed?” came their voice through an exasperated sigh that was muffled by their arms. They didn’t make any effort to raise their head, and a half limp hand raised to point at the red light above the register before it dropped back down again.

“I’m not a customer. I, uh, today is my first day as an employee.” Stefan said, not liking how his palms had suddenly grown a little clammy at the thought. Then, from beneath a heavy sweep of curls tumbling over the cashier’s face, Stefan’s gaze was met by theirs as they raised their head a few inches and let their chin rest on their arms.

They slowly gave him a once over, gaze lingering a little too long for Stefan’s liking, but then when they began to stand up and ambled around the register painfully without haste to stand before him, he realised that their movements were just slow and lazy in general.

“Name’s Lukas, he/him pronouns,” he said, then pointed to his name badge before shoving his hands firmly into the pockets of his oversized fleece,

“and it’s Lukas with a ‘K’, but corporate got it wrong. I’d get used to that if I were you.” Lukas finished with an eyeroll, and Stefan glanced at his tag.

It read ‘Lucas’, and there were two little bronze stars above his name.

Now it was Stefan’s turn to give Lukas a once over, though he made much quicker work of it. From what he could actually see, there wasn’t anything particularly striking about him. Most of him was hidden beneath oversized clothing and a mop of curls, and though his complexion wasn’t awful, it was hard to miss the dark circles that looked pretty set in beneath his eyes.

“And you are?” he drawled, and Stefan blinked and adjusted his glasses.

“Oh, Stefan.”

Lukas nodded, then unpinned his name tag and pocketed it.

“Right, well I’ll take you to Matthias. I’m on my break though, so you owe me.” He said bluntly, then stepped around Stefan to head further into the store.

Striding just behind Lukas, Stefan looked around at the store as they passed the aisles and tried to get his head around the layout. Lukas weaved in and out between customers with ease, narrowly avoiding shopping carts and screaming children while Stefan had already apologised to two customers under his breath for bumping into them by the time Lukas slowed down a little and matched Stefan’s pace.

“So… do you not have a break room?” Stefan asked cautiously. He knew that big box stores weren’t the kindest to their employees, but no _break room_ -

“What do you mean?” Lukas eyed him as they walked, looking a little puzzled, and Stefan pointed over his shoulder as though to gesture back over to the registers behind them,

“Back there, at the register, you were… taking your break?”

“Oh, no we do have a break room. It’s just that to take my break I have to get up from the register, walk to the staff area just to sit down for ten minutes then get up to walk _back_ just to sit down again. So I just stay at the register.” Lukas shrugged, making to and fro motions with his hands, and Stefan pursed his lips and nodded once to himself, not really knowing how to respond to that.

“Gotcha. The Store Manager okay with that?”

“You mean Timo?” Lukas gave another glance, then a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth,

“As long as you stay on his good side, you’ll be fine.” He said as he brought a finger up and drew tiny circles by his temples and cast Stefan a warning look.

_Great, he was probably just about to start working under a dictatorship._

Just as Lukas led Stefan around the corner and the double doors of the staff area that he remembered from his initial interview came into sight, a mop and bucket wheeled out from one of the aisles, followed by a weedy looking employee who was pushing it.

“Emil, you look paler than usual.” Lukas stopped beside him, and Stefan watched as he leant a little on the handle of the mop looking as though he might throw up,

“I just had to clean up a… well, _substance_ is the only word coming to mind, from aisle 17.”

Emil gestured toward the bucket and shuddered, his face growing even paler still that Stefan wouldn’t be surprised if he turned see-through.

“You’re so lucky that you’re a cashier y’know. Why do you get the cushy job?” He continued, then his attention turned to Stefan as though he’d only just realised that he was standing there. He straightened up a little and sighed ever so slightly,

“How can I H-Mart Help you, sir?”

Stefan quickly looked over his shoulder a little awkwardly just in case Emil was talking to an actual customer behind him, but the aisle was empty. Before he could explain himself yet again, Lukas began to answer for him.

“This is Steven-“

“Stefan.” He cut in, and Lukas rolled his eyes,

“ _Stefan_ , is starting today. I was taking him to Matt.”

Emil relaxed once again, deflating against the mop handle now that he was safe in the knowledge that he wasn’t in the presence of a customer.

“Oh, I thought that this was you dragging a customer all the way around the store to find a Team Member to help him find something ‘cause you’re ‘ _a cashier and that’s not your job_.’”

Raising the pitch of his voice and taking in an exaggerated soft drawl, Emil made air quotations with his fingers and narrowed his eyes at Lukas as he mimicked him. Then he dropped his arms loosely by his side and gave Stefan an apologetic look,

“Welcome to Hell.” Were his parting words before he disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared, the sound of the squeaky wheel of the mop bucket growing quieter as he got further away.

Lukas turned to Stefan and flipped his hair from his eyes with a jerk of his head.

“Well, this is where I leave you. Head through those doors and take a right, Matt should be busy-bodying around somewhere. He’s the ridiculously tall ginger one, ya can’t miss him. Once again, welcome to Hell, Steven.”

With a quick pat to the shoulder as he passed him, Lukas left Stefan in the middle of the main aisle. 

“It’s Stefan-“ he began to call after him, but then stopped himself short deciding that it was probably no use.

Clutching the strap on his satchel, Stefan pushed through the double doors and took a right just as Lukas had said to and was met by a long corridor, the ugly strip lighting making it seem longer than it probably was. The walls were clinically white and covered with all manner of back of house jargon typical of probably most stores like this no matter the brand or corporation.

Stefan slowed his pace a little and couldn’t help but smirk a little in amusement as he passed a noticeboard covered in photographs printed out on cheap looking copy paper. Each photograph looked like a mugshot, printed in black and white, of a person holding a handmade sign that said things such as “ _I’m a worthless shoplifter_ ”, “ _I don’t know how that got in my bag_ ” and “ _at least my mom believes in me_ ”.

Just as he was about to stop walking completely to get a better look at the board, Stefan jumped as a warm hand landed on his shoulder. When he turned around swiftly on the spot he was met with a freckly face and a wide smile made up of the straightest teeth he’d ever seen in his life. 

“Hey, buddy! You must be Stefan! I’m Matthias, Assistant Manager.” Matthias enthused as he extended a hang out toward Stefan. Compared to Lukas and Emil, Matthias was a bowling ball of energy that took Stefan very much by surprise.

“Uh, yeah. That’s me.” he said as he shook Matthias’s hand.

Letting his eyes run quickly over the noticeboard behind Stefan, Matthias rocked back and forth on his heels for a moment and let out a whistle as he looked at it,

“Pretty impressive huh? No shoplifter gets past Timo without making the board.” he grinned, then pointed to one of the photographs as Stefan returned his attention to it,

“That guy was one of ours. Shane from the warehouse. Nice guy too, woulda never believed it either had Timo not dragged him into the break room and forced him to take his clothes off in front of us all to reveal that he’d been concealing stuff on his person. Man, that was a crazy day.”

From behind his glasses, Stefan’s eyes slid to look at Matthias as he stood still grinning and looking over the board,

“Soon this’ll be your legacy though.” Matthias mused, an oddly wistful tone to his voice, then tore his eyes away from the board and met Stefan’s,

“C’mon, I’ll show ya to your lair and get you a uniform then we’ll go work out your shifts with the Big Guy!”

As Matthias continued with the same level and tone of enthusiasm, Stefan quickly realised as he followed him down the corridor that that was probably just how he spoke, and so he mentally braced himself for the 8 hour shift ahead of him.

“I bet yer excited, first day on the job and all that, right?” Matthias said as he stopped in front of a door at the end of the corridor and pushed it open.

“Thrilled.” Stefan deadpanned, and followed him into the room.

It was much smaller than he expected, and only grew darker when Matthias closed the door. The wall in front of them was lined with 8 or so security monitors, each one split further into two screens displaying different parts of the store in realtime.

“So, whaddya think? Pretty neat, huh? We’ll give you full training on how to use the systems of course, and we’ll need to get you watching some loss prevention DVD’s today, but Emma from regional who did your interview seems to think you’ll do just fine.” Matthias finished with an overzealous slap to Stefan’s back.

Matthias spent another couple of minutes going through Stefan’s job role as Store Security Associate with him as he finished showing him the CCTV room, then led him further into the back to a little locker room full of shelves upon shelves of the signature blue and yellow uniform. Unlike Matthias who wore a bright yellow polo shirt, Stefans uniform gave him the choice between either a blue sweatshirt or a t-shirt which would then be accompanied by a _very_ flattering yellow vest. 

Stefan, who wasn’t very good at small talk, found that after only spending little under half an hour with Matthias his neck was beginning to ache from nodding so much along to what he was saying. Once he’d ended up choosing the sweatshirt over the t-shirt, Stefan had been allowed five blissful minutes to himself while he got changed in the mens room. 

He stood at the sink and ran his hand through his hair, smoothing it down where it was sticking up at the back with a little water as he peered at himself in the mirror. Then, it finally sunk in. He’d really taken a job at a big box store in a brand new town with no friends, no family nearby, and nothing but a couple months worth of rent in the bank. 

“Hey bud, ya doing alright in here?”

Matthias interrupted Stefan’s thoughts as he poked his head around the door and met his eye through the mirror.

“Ooh, lookin’ good! I just radioed through and Timo’s in his office ready for ya. Let’s go make it official!”

Practically bouncing out of the mens room, Matthias disappeared again into the corridor, and when Stefan followed him out he led him back towards the big doors that opened out onto the store floor and stopped outside one of the first office that they came to. The door was closed and locked with a keycode. 

As Matthias punched in the code, Stefan looked at the metal plaque on the front reading ‘Store Manager’ and prepared a mental image of Timo as he thought about how he’d been described in passing. The fact that Lukas had made reference to staying on his ‘good side’ and Matthias had referred to him as ‘The Big Guy’ quickly conjured up an idea in Stefan’s mind of exactly the type of person his boss would be. Not forgetting the shoplifter board either, Stefan sighed through his nose as he pictured the typical tall, well built, slightly unkempt wannabe businessman that would no doubt be sat lounging in a swivel chair on the other side of he door. Dark hair, dirty stubble, probably made sexist jokes; Stefan had more than experienced this guy reincarnated several times. 

The keycode pad beeped as it granted Matthias access, and he opened the door to step into the room. He held it open and motioned for Stefan to step in first, and Stefan had to hide his shock when he was met with the exact opposite of the image he’d been holding in his head. 

“Ah, Mr Oxenstierna, please come in and take a seat, it’s great to meet you. Matthias, go and fetch us three a coffee will you?” 

Timo began to rise up from his chair in greeting as Stefan entered the room, and Stefan felt his brows raise in surprise when he’d stopped at no more than 5 foot 6. With smooth blond hair, a perfectly clean shaven face, and well, _large_ build, for want of a better word, Stefan half expected the man before him to be an intern, But sure enough the ID badge pinned to his shirt and name plate on the desk both read _Timo_. 

_Perhaps he should take this as a lesson learnt not to stereotype_. 

Taking a seat in the chair opposite Timo, Stefan sank into it and clasped his hands in his lap.

“Welcome aboard my ship, Stefan, I’m sure the crew gave you a warm welcome?” Timo beamed as he too sat back down and opened his arms out widely to gesture to the room and the rest of the store beyond the walls. 

The red carpet hadn’t exactly been rolled out, and Lukas and Emil hadn’t exactly given off the _best_ first impression of the store, but Stefan didn’t have the heart to break that to Timo upon his first encounter, and so he just nodded curtly.

“They did.” he said, and Timo’s smile grew impossibly wider,

“Good. Now, I won’t keep you too long, but I just thought that we should have a quick little chat before you sign your contract.”

Opening a drawer in his desk, Timo rummaged around and leafed through a heavy stack of papers that he pulled out and dropped loudly onto the desk. The pink of his tongue poked out as he thumbed quickly through the pages until he found the document that he was looking for.

“Okay, here we are. So,” he paused to slide the single page document toward Stefan who leaned forward to look at it on the desk before him.

“Matthias will go through the store policies with you in a moment and make sure you’re up to speed with the code of conduct, but I just wanted to draw your attention to this little contract.”

Standing up again, Timo placed both his palms flat on the desk and leaned over it so that he was _nearly_ looming above Stefan while he was seated, but still not quite.

“This is my store. That means that everything goes through me, and me alone. Regional hired you to be my head of security, but that doesn’t mean you’re not on the same level as the rest of our family of troops. You report to me, and you receive your orders from me. Is that clear?”

Despite the light tone to Timo’s voice, Stefan felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle at his words. He swallowed thickly, giving Timo a firm nod of understanding as he was pinned beneath his glare.

Then, the door behind them opened as Matthias returned, and Timo flopped back down heavily into his chair with a content sigh as his bright smile returned. 

“Perfect timing, Matthias, thank you!” 

Pulling up another chair, Matthias sat down beside Stefan and handed him a styrofoam cup of coffee. Stefan took it gingerly and held it a little awkwardly in his hand as he looked between Matthias and Timo.

“Do you take sugar, Stefan?” Timo offered, holding out a couple of little sachets as he nodded toward the cup in his hand.

“Oh, uh, no thanks. Just black is fine.” he said, setting his cup down on the desk.

“Snap, me too! I think we’re going to get along just fine.” Timo enthused, setting down his own cup so that he could lean his elbows on the desk and place his chin in his palm,

“Now, if you want to sign your contract and make it official, the job’s all yours.” he smiled sweetly, so sweetly in fact that Stefan began to second guess himself and wonder if he’d read too much into Timo’s words just moments ago. Matthias didn’t seem to sense the tension in the room, and instead grinned at Stefan eagerly as he picked up the pen on the desk and held it over the dotted line. 

He hesitated for a moment, casting a final glance between Matthias and Timo before he let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding and signed his name.

“Nice one buddy!” Matthias smiled warmly at Stefan, and Timo took the contract from him as he handed it to him, then once it was away in the drawer he extended his hand toward Stefan again, though this time to shake it.

“Welcome to H-Mart.”

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO
> 
> I've nothing to say other than welcome to my new obsession lmao :')
> 
> Currently this AU is my pride and joy, and I'm having so much fun. The characters are going to be pretty exaggerated, and I'm trying a new writing style, so I just hope that you enjoy reading this story as much as I have writing it!
> 
> See you all back here soon!
> 
> -lumassen x


End file.
